Access controllers, as are generally known in the art, can respond to any number of commands to influence operation of the access controller to control physical access to an area. Over time, the number of possible commands that an access controller can respond to has grown. Similarly, the complexity of the individual commands has grown along with an access controller's response to these commands. For example, a single command may cause the access controller to perform multiple tasks simultaneously or in succession.
With this increased quantity and complexity of commands, an access controller will often receive multiple commands, some of which may be in conflict with each other. For example, a later received command may directly conflict with an earlier received command wherein performing the task associated with the later received command would conflict with a previously or continuously performed task associated with the earlier received command. Additionally, some commands may be deemed of greater importance than others or have more of a universal impact than others.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.